El Espectador

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To rewrite one's story, when it is so painful, feels like a kind of suicide. Psychologists would say that is part of a grieving process, helping close nefarious chapters in life. We, the victims of sexual violence, are often told that. But I think it would be more helpful to the goal of moving forward if receiving justice were part of the process.

New York, February 26, 2016--The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the sentencing Thursday of former paramilitary fighter Alejandro Cárdenas Orozco to 11 years in prison for the kidnap and torture of Colombian journalist Jineth Bedoya Lima in 2000.

When Claudia Morales's six-year-old daughter asks about her mother's bodyguards, the Colombian journalist tells her they are colleagues. "She's too young to understand," Morales, who works for the Bogotá-based Caracol Radio in the city of Armenia, told CPJ in a telephone interview. Vicky Dávila, the news director of LA Fm Radio who also has private security, said that her 14-year-old son is afraid and has asked why they don't leave their home in Bogotá.

Bogotá, June 4, 2015--The Colombian attorney general's office announced Monday that charges have been dropped against Alejandro Cárdenas Orozco, a paramilitary fighter who confessed to taking part in the 2000 kidnapping of Colombian journalist Jineth Bedoya, who was also raped in the attack, according to news reports. Cárdenas later retracted his confession, according to reports.

Bogotá, May 1, 2015--The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the sentencing on Thursday by the Colombian Supreme Court of two former senior government officials for their roles in an illegal surveillance program. The program, which occurred while former President Álvaro Uribe was in office, involved spying on some of the country's most prominent journalists as well as judges, human rights activists, and opposition politicians, according to news reports.

Bogotá, March 16, 2015--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a threat made against Colombian newspaper columnist Ana Cristina Restrepo Jiménez and calls on authorities to hold the perpetrator to account.

The
Colombian Supreme Court announced on August 27, 2012, that it would drop a defamation
complaint
against prominent journalist Cecilia Orozco Tascón, according to news reports. Five days
earlier, the court released a statement saying it would
file charges against Orozco, who writes a widely read column in the Bogotá
daily El Espectador. The
court also criticized a column by another journalist, María Jimena Duzán,
which was published in the weekly Semana magazine.

Bogotá, August 27, 2012--Colombia's Supreme Court must immediately
drop an unprecedented criminaldefamation
complaint against a prominent local columnist who questioned recent actions
by the court, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

The issue of impunity affects all Colombian citizens'
access to real justice; it is not only a problem for crimes against
journalists. Several human rights bodies and non-governmental organizations
agree that Colombia dwells in a striking situation of impunity, especially concerning
crimes committed during the ongoing armed conflict.